cul·ture
/ˈkəlCHər/
The characteristics and knowledge
of a particular group of people,
encompassing language, religion,
cuisine, social habits, music and arts.
no·mads
/ˈnōˌmads/
People who do not stay long in the
same place; wanderers, travelers.
Currently in Bora Bora, French Polynesia
Next Stop: Fiji
Total Miles Traveled: 15,174
cul·ture
/ˈkəlCHər/
The characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, cuisine, social habits, music and arts.
no·mads
/ˈnōˌmads/
People who do not stay long in the same place; wanderers, travelers.
Currently in Bora Bora
Next Stop: Fiji
Total Miles Traveled: 15,174
Welcome to Our Family Travel Blog
Welcome
Welcome to Our Family Travel Blog
Welcome
Our family is traveling the world, making memories, and learning. We are currently sailing from French Polynesia to Australia on Hanavave, our 38-foot Fountaine Pajot catamaran.
Travel with us:
Culture Nomads on Travel + Leisure’s “Let’s Go Together” podcast
I heard about your incredible adventure on the podcast and have since done a deep dive on your Instagram. What you are doing is simply inspiring!!
Pre-covid we took our kids (7 & 9) to NZ and Australia for 6 weeks but I have long dreamed of doing what you are. I wonder if I shoud wait till our kids are in their teens though :).
I will continue to follow your travels but just wanted to say: stranger to another stranger: I believe the gift you are giving your kids right now is the absoute best gift of all. And you inspire me…so thank you!
Sailing Tahiti to Australia: Month 1 | From Bus to Boat
Sailing Tahiti to Australia: Month 2 | Tahiti & Mo’orea
We are a family of 4 traveling the world full time. Currently, we are sailing the South Pacific from French Polynesia to Australia.
Grant is an Aussie Best-Selling Mindful Leadership Author, Speaker and Business Strategist and Jana is a Czech born and raised Creative Director and Artist. Our son, Jack, is 16 and our daughter, Stella (aka Stellie, Ellie, or Bean) is 15. We also have Mackie and Paigie, 9-year old Labradoodles and Phoebe, a 3-year old Great Dane.
Since 2020 has turned out to be a crazy year, we decided to sell our home in Charlottesville, Virginia, move into “Thelma & Louise,” a 2002 Monaco Diplomat RV and a 2016 Jeep Wrangler and travel the U.S. and Mexico.
After almost 8 months of traveling the U.S. and Mexico with Thelma and Louise, we transitioned to “Hanavave,” a 38-foot catamaran in Tahiti. We will spend the next few months sailing French Polynesia and the South Pacific to Australia.
We invite you to travel with us by following our social channels below.
gamble-family-adventures-rv-travel-blog-jana-grant
Jana & Grant
gamble-family-adventures-rv-travel-blog-jack-stellie
Jack & Stellie
gamble-family-adventures-rv-travel-blog-welcome-puppies
Paigie, Phoebe & Mackie
gamble-family-adventures-rv-travel-blog-welcome-thelma-louise
Thelma & Louise
“Why We Sold Our Home to Live on a Bus and Travel Full-Time”
by Grant & Jana
“Why We Sold Our Home to Live on a Bus and Travel Full-Time”
by Grant & Jana
“How We Stay Safe & Healthy While Traveling Full-Time during COVID-19”
by Grant & Jana
“How We Stay Safe & Healthy While Traveling Full-Time during COVID-19”
by Grant & Jana
“Lessons From the Road | Less is More: Adventure Over Stuff”
by Jana
“Lessons From the Road | Less is More: Adventure Over Stuff”
by Jana
Our Trip
Trip
Our Trip
Trip
About Us
About
About Us
About
Best-Selling Author & Business Strategist | MacGyver
Creative Director | Artist Outdoors
16 | Soccer Player | Music | “The Office”
15 | Artist | Singer | Animal Lover | Anime
About Hanavave
About
About Hanavave
About
“Hanavave” is a 2002 Catamaran Athena 38 Fountaine Pajot. Hanavave is the name of a very picturesque bay in the Marquesas, an island group located in French Polynesia, about 760 nautical miles northeast of Tahiti. We bought Hanavave from Frank, a nice German man who had sailed her from Germany to Tahiti with the goal of reaching Australia, but his voyage got cut short by COVID and its subsequent travel restrictions and port closures. Prior to that, Hanavave was a charter boat in Croatia for 15 years.
We bought the boat remotely, sight unseen, which means that there were a few surprises that Grant and Jack uncovered upon their arrival. Because Frank had been stuck in Tahiti for quite a while, there was a lot of deferred maintenance on the boat.
Grant has repaired or replaced the main sail, the bimini window and walk boards, the lazy bag rigging, the main sail pulley, the wind turbine system, the alternators and battery charge controller, the emergency hatch in the port head, put in new drive belts, new bed mattresses in all four cabins, repaired the saloon cushions, the oven, and we pulled the boat out of the water to put on new propeller drive seals and to clean, sand and apply new antifouling paint. Grant installed fans and new LED lights in all cabins, built a new table for the rear deck and repaired the trampoline, many of the 12-volt charging ports and installed an inverter.
We’ve also removed many dinghy loads of excess gear and items that we will not need and have cleaned the boat thoroughly, both inside and out.
Hanavave has 4 double cabins and 2 heads with showers. She is powered by solar and wind and has 2 180-liter water tanks. This makes for a lifestyle that has to be very mindful of power and water usage: we “shower” by swimming in the ocean on most days and about once a week we shower on shore in the marina facilities. We wash our dishes in the ocean, we re-wear our clothes and wash them in the marina laundromat, and have to make sure we don’t use too much electricity on sunless or windless days. There is no air conditioning or a freezer on the boat and we also have to be very mindful of the amount of trash we produce.
While they are a big adjustment, we welcome these challenges as we acknowledge that our usual way of living contributes greatly to the green house effect and we want to gain a better understanding around our energy consumption and pollution output in order to live more sustainably going forward.
Click on image to enlarge ✌️
About Thelma the Bus
About
About Thelma
About
Thelma was our 2002 Monaco Diplomat RV. We spent almost 8 months traveling the U.S. and Mexico with her between November 2020 and June 2021. She was 40-feet long and had a main living area with a custom built dining section, kitchen section with a fridge, freezer and pantry, two custom built bunks for the kids and a wardrobe with a large cabinet and drawers. The bathroom area was in between the main living area and the back bedroom, which had a queen size bed, large closet and plenty of cabinets and drawers for storage.
Thelma towed Louise, our 2016 Jeep Wrangler. Upon moving on to Hanavave, a catamaran in French Polynesia, we sold Thelma and Louise and they both now live in Washington State.
We will always cherish the memories we made while traveling with Thelma & Louise.
Thelma was our 2002 Monaco Diplomat RV. We spent almost 8 months traveling the U.S. and Mexico with her between November 2020 and June 2021. She was 40-feet long and had a main living area with a custom built dining section, kitchen section with a fridge, freezer and pantry, two custom built bunks for the kids and a wardrobe with a large cabinet and drawers. The bathroom area was in between the main living area and the back bedroom, which had a queen size bed, large closet and plenty of cabinets and drawers for storage.
Thelma towed Louise, our 2016 Jeep Wrangler. Upon moving on to Hanavave, a catamaran in French Polynesia, we sold Thelma and Louise and they both now live in Washington State.
We will always cherish the memories we made while traveling with Thelma & Louise.
Our Travel Blog
Our Travel BlogTravel
Please note that the focus of our blog is not to be a travel guide or a review site. Rather, it is a family diary of our travels accompanied by “Reflections,” which are thought pieces about our experiences.
As we are currently living on a sail boat in French Polynesia, our internet access is quite limited and we are unable to post daily diary entries. You can visit our social media channels for short updates and we will be posting recaps and reflections of longer time periods less frequently.
Thanks for traveling with us! 😎✌️
Our Travel Blog
Travel
Please note that the focus of our blog is not to be a travel guide or a review site. Rather, it is a family diary of our travels accompanied by “Reflections,” which are thought pieces about our experiences.
As we are currently living on a sail boat in French Polynesia, our internet access is quite limited and we are unable to post daily diary entries. You can visit our social media channels for short updates and we will be posting recaps and reflections of longer time periods less frequently.
Thanks for traveling with us! 😎✌️
Travel Diary
Travel
A log of what we get up to, including a photo and video galleries.
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Month 2
Here is what our second month living on our boat, Hanavave, in Tahiti, French Polynesia, was like.
Our trip to Australia was delayed due to port closures throughout the South Pacific. We spent the month making improvements to Hanavave so that we could make the passage to Australia with fewer stops.
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Month 1
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Month 1instagramfacebookyoutubetwitter Welcome! We are a family of four: Grant (dad), Jana (mom), Jack (16) and Stella/Ellie (15). We just finished an 8-month tour of the U.S. and Mexico in Thelma & Louise, our Monaco Diplomat...
Reflections
Reflections
Our personal reflections on some of our travel experiences.
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Month 2
Here is what our second month living on our boat, Hanavave, in Tahiti, French Polynesia, was like.
Our trip to Australia was delayed due to port closures throughout the South Pacific. We spent the month making improvements to Hanavave so that we could make the passage to Australia with fewer stops.
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Month 1
Sailing Tahiti to Australia | Month 1instagramfacebookyoutubetwitter Welcome! We are a family of four: Grant (dad), Jana (mom), Jack (16) and Stella/Ellie (15). We just finished an 8-month tour of the U.S. and Mexico in Thelma & Louise, our Monaco Diplomat...
Places
Places
These are some of the states we have visited so far. Click here to view all.
BC
Baja, Mexico
UT
Utah
National Parks
Parks
These are some of the National Parks we have visited. Click here to view all.
AZ
Grand Canyon
UT
Arches
Our departure has been logistically challenging to say the least and we are still in Bora Bora. We were denied entry into Samoa to pick up our equipment (mainly watermaker) and haven’t had any word from American Samoa, so our last option is Fiji. We were trying to avoid Fiji because covid rates there are high, the paperwork and cost of getting in are very intense (Fiji is a master at bureaucracy!! 😳) and we can’t get our equipment there. Fiji is also twice as far as we originally planned to sail without stopping (14 days), so it will be more challenging. We also lost our crew member, Evan, who decided to return to the U.S. upon realizing that his visa into Australia would not exempt him from their mandatory 14-day quarantine. But our family is up for the challenge to handle the trip by ourselves. We have done a lot of training and learning with Grant and have devised a watch schedule in which each of us will have two 4-hour shifts each day. This trip is nothing like what we expected, but it’s already taught us so many lessons. Most importantly, it has brought our family even closer and that is a great gift. Jack and Ellie have grown beyond measure and are embracing the challenge of a 14-day passage. We are heading off on Thursday morning, this time for real. 🤞✌️💙
The current plan is to leave Bora Bora in the morning and head for Samoa, about a six-day sail. Today is our 18th wedding anniversary and we couldn’t be spending it in a more fitting place.
Captain Grant in Bora Bora in all his glory. This man is amazing. 💙
We arrived in Bora Bora after about 20 hours of sailing. We started off with a bit of rough weather, but had nice wind until around Raiatea. Happy to be here, moored in another beautiful place in the South Pacific.
We moved to Opunohu Bay on Mo’orea Island this morning to gain access to another hike. There is a beautiful beach here and we enjoyed the views after hiking 1,200 feet up a very steep mountain. We are going to get our covid PCR tests in the morning and should be off to Bora Bora in the afternoon. Fingers crossed!
Another beautiful day exploring Mo’orea, French Polynesia, as we patiently await permission to enter Samoa. Today’s views were beautiful and Jack did some climbing to get above the trees and capture Hanavave from above.
Cook’s Bay and hiking on Mo’orea, French Polynesia.
Nana, Tahiti! Mauruuru roa for giving us a home for two months. We met so many wonderful new friends from all around the world here, and had some amazing adventures. Our first stop is Mo’orea for a couple of days, followed by Bora Bora and hopefully Samoa. French Polynesia is in lockdown now and all other ports in the South Pacific are closed (except for Fiji, but COVID rates there are tough and they require a 14-day quarantine). We have requested assistance from the American Embassy in Samoa to help us get permission to enter Apia under extenuating circumstances to pick up two crates with equipment that we shipped there before we left the U.S. This includes a watermaker, which we’ll need to complete the long passage to Australia without stopping. There are a lot of logistics ahead and our trip will be very different to the one we originally planned, but we are taking it a day at a time, grateful to have the opportunity to explore this beautiful part of the world.
TRAVEL WITH US!
We are currently sailing the South Pacific to Australia.
Thank you for joining us, have a great day!